No room for City pair in Spain squad
IT’S the Spain squad no one watching the Premier League back in January would have thought possible. Coach Vicente del Bosque named his 23 for Brazil yesterday and Juan Mata and Fernando Torres made the plane at the expense of Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas.
‘It breaks my heart to leave Navas behind,’ said Del Bosque. ‘But he has not been right for the past two months and I prefer to take someone who is 100 per cent.’
That criteria was not applied to Diego Costa. Spain’s Brazilian-born striker is struggling with the hamstring problem that reduced his participation in the Champions League final to just eight minutes.
But the top scoring ‘Spaniard’ in La Liga last season is given extra time to get back to full fitness and his place in the 23 was only ever going to leave two other striker berths. Del Bosque has opted for experience with David Villa and Torres in ahead of Negredo.
Torres’s inclusion might baffle everyone outside of Spain but he is seen as a big occasion player, an excellent squad member and a favourite of Del Bosque, who has never been convinced by Negredo who he barely used at Euro 2012.
For Navas it represents a major dis- appointment after being an important squad player four years ago when Spain won the World Cup in South Africa. He came on against Holland in the final and it was his mazy run out of defence that led to Andres Iniesta’s extra-time winning goal.
His absence means that both Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla and Manchester United’s Mata made the cut.
Despite the absence of the City pair there are 10 players in Del Bosque’s squad who perform, or have played, in the Premier League. Six of those should feature in Spain’s opening fixture against Holland, with the holders likely to name Cesar Azpilicueta at right-back in a defence that will include Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos and Jordi Alba; Koke, Xabi Alonso and Sergi Busquets in midfield with Iniesta, David Silva and Cesc Fabregas in attack, the former Arsenal captain operating as a false nine as he did in the last European Championship.
Spain play a friendly against El Salvador on Saturday in Washington. Crocked Costa could be given a runout in that final warm-up with Del Bosque not ruling out using FIFA’s Article 29, which allows him to make a final squad change 24 hours before their opening game against the Dutch.
If Costa is ruled out, Juventus forward Fernando Llorente will take his place alongside Fabregas, Torres and Villa as Spain defend their crown.